Dullahan 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Story - Final Part! (nsfw) (Patreon)

Sorry I didn't get to post it this morning - technical difficulties and my growing community of laptop gremlins prevented it - but it's here now! Here's the 4k or so conclusion to the now rather epic cyoa story! It's been a blast, and I have loved sharing it with you. D has become one of my favourite characters, as has my darling goblin boy Kravik, as you might be able to tell from this chapter. Perhaps he'll get his own story soon...? 

Anyway, without further ado, here is the final part, Part Thirteen (because 13 is actually a lucky number, I promise...)

“I’m coming with you, D.” 

At your response, he sucked in a sharp breath, his fingers clenched in an iron grasp around the brush in his hand. Midnight shifted uneasily, sensing his roiling emotions, and then stuck her nose out to nuzzle against his back, as though offering him encouragement. D let his shoulders drop and he sighed heavily and nodded. “Very well.”

“‘Very well’,” you snorted. “That’s all you’ve got to say?”

His gaze turned from hard to pained in a heartbeat, and he lowered his eyes to the gravel of the path between you. That distance - perhaps only three or four feet - seemed an impassable gulf until he spoke again. “What am I supposed to say?” he asked softly. “I could already see that that would be your answer.”

“Aren’t you happy about it?” you demanded. 

“You know my feelings on the matter,” he said flatly. “I want you safe before I want you with me; before all else.”

“Safe and sad,” you spat sourly. “Got it. I thought you were going to respect my decision,” you added, feeling your face heat up. “I thought…” 

D took a step towards you and held out his hand. “I’m sorry,” he said. “This is just a big change for me. It’s a lot for me to deal with. My kind work alone, and what we do can be very dangerous at times. I told you all this already though. I just… I just hoped you might stay here, that’s all.”

The dullahan suddenly went rigid, and with a wave of his hand, Midnight and he both vanished from your sight. 

“D?” you asked, stepping forwards in panic. 

“Quiet,” came his rumbling voice. “I’m still here. It’s just a glamour. Someone’s coming.”

“Don’t you dare sneak off, will you?”

His touch on your elbow made you jump, and his warm breath fanned out across your cheek and neck. With a soft chuckle, he pressed a kiss onto your skin that made goosebumps skitter over your whole right-hand side, and he murmured, “I won’t sneak off, I promise.”

“We could have some fun with this, you know?” you giggled, and with a final squeeze somewhere considerably cheekier than your arm, D vanished from your perception. 

A few seconds later, Kravik emerged out of the evening shadows on the road, his hands in his pockets, the little goblin whistling softly to himself as he walked. When he saw you already standing on the road in front of your house, apparently alone, he drew up short in surprise, and tilted his head. “Everything alright?” he asked as he approached. 

You nodded. “Yeah.”

“I thought I’d drop in and see if you’re doing alright… You know, after your dullahan dropped by last night.”

You looked pointedly over at where Midnight had been - and probably still was - standing, and said loudly, “He’s still here.” 

D took it for the invitation it was, and removed the glamour, since Kravik already knew all about him. The goblin leapt about a foot to the side in surprise as the horse materialised out of thin air, shortly followed by the tall figure of the dullahan, standing beside her shoulder. He nodded politely at Kravik, but remained silent. 

“Right,” the goblin said awkwardly once he’d recovered. “Well, look, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just wanted to check you were alright. I’ll, erm… yeah…” He gestured vaguely over his shoulder with his thumb.

“Wait, Krav,” you called as he turned away. “I… I do need to talk to you. Any chance you’re gonna be at the inn a bit later tonight?”

“I can be,” he said carefully, dark eyes narrowing. 

“Great,” you chirped. “I’ll see you there in a bit then…”

He was clearly still very suspicious as he turned away, but he trusted you, and nodded curtly at D before he left. 

About an hour or so later after discussing things in more detail with D, you headed to the Highwayman’s Secret. As you approached, you tried hard not to look too closely at the sign above the door this time, since you now knew the actual subject of the painting and the truth of the story behind the inn’s name. D remained behind at your little hut, having promised - yet again - that he would not leave town without you. 

Kravik took the news of your imminent departure about as well as you’d thought he would. He was devastated. He said he understood, and that he wanted you to be happy, but his delicate, grey, tapering ears drooped visibly and his dark eyes shone with unshed tears. 

“Krav, I’m sorry,” you said, seizing hold of his long, spindly fingers and squeezing him hard. 

A single tear spilled from the rim of his eyes and rolled down his cheek towards his sharp chin. “I’m going to miss you so much,” he whispered, his glassy gaze fixed on your joined hands. “You’ve always been there for me.”

“I’ll still be here for you, Krav,” you said. “I’ll write to you, and I’ll visit when I can.”

“Just promise me you’ll take care,” he said, and you nodded. “When are you leaving?”

“I don’t know,” you said, “But soon. Maybe even tomorrow.”

His grip clenched even tighter, and he bowed his head, bringing your hands up to his brow. He pressed his forehead against your skin and sighed, silent tears now rolling freely down his cheeks. 

“Krav, don’t cry,” you said, choking up. “Please…”

“Come and say goodbye before you go?” he asked, and you promised. 

You spent the rest of the evening holding his slender hands and talking about everything, from the progress the goblins were making and what they would do now that the mine was closed, to your earliest childhood memories of scrumping for apples and stealing fresh-baked biscuits from the open door of the baker’s together… Most of the goblins to move away to where their family and friends worked in other mining villages and towns, while only a few were prepared to try and find different work in the same area. Kravik said that he might try and look for somewhere else, now that he knew you weren’t going to be there, and you tried not to feel too guilty. It would be a new chapter for both of you. 

“You’ll have lots to tell me about when we see each other again…” you smiled. “You must let me know where you decide to go…”

As the night wore on, you were joined by the rest of your friends, and you told them that you were leaving and planning to travel. They seemed supportive and excited, though Erik said he and his brother would miss you. Only you and Kravik knew the truth, that you were going to be galloping off in the morning with a dullahan, and once you’d said all your goodbyes, you let Kravik and Erik walk you back to the hut. Erik gave you a minotaur-speciality, bone-crushing hug at the door, while Kravik just stood there looking miserable. You knelt down, knowing that he didn't mind it when you did so, and put yourself at his eye level. You drew him close to you and held his small body tightly. He was trembling softly.

“I love you, Krav,” you whispered to your life-long best friend. “I’m sorry I’m leaving.”

“I get it,” he said. “I really do; I just… I’m… I’m going to miss you.”

“I promise I’ll come and say goodbye tomorrow.” 

He nodded, and you stood and walked up the stairs to your front door. Pausing with your hand on the latch, you gazed back and saw Kravik and Erik walking away, the goblin looking so miserable it almost made you change your mind. 

You pushed the door open and D looked up at you from a seat by the fire, one of your favourite books in his lap. His physical head appeared still to be in its protective chest because the soft glow of his green essence flared a little brighter as you walked in. When he saw the expression on your face, however, he closed the book and surged to his feet, striding over to you and putting his hands on your shoulder and waist. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “What happened?”

“I hate goodbyes,” you said glumly and closed the door behind you with a click. 

“You don’t have to -”

“Don’t finish that,” you snapped, trying to blink the tears from your eyes. “Tonight was painful enough without you making it worse by changing my mind. I’m coming with you, and that’s that. Alright? We’re done talking about it.”

He nodded and leaned down to kiss your tears away. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t want to be an ass about this. I just wanted you to consider it thoroughly.”

“I have,” you said. “I missed you so much when I thought you were dead… But knowing you were out there, and that I couldn’t be with you, would be even worse. I think it would just about destroy me, D.”

He smiled suddenly, and you flashed him a quizzical frown. He chuckled, and said, “I love that you call me that.”

“What, ‘D’?” 

“Yes,” he said, ducking low to kiss you right on the corner of your lips and making you smile. He thumbed a line across your cheekbone and drew you towards the fire to warm you up. 

Instead of taking a seat opposite him, you sank into his lap, and he laughed as you leaned your body against his chest, resting the back of your head on his shoulder. “Why do you like it?” you asked in a quiet voice. The flickering and crackling of the logs in the grate were the only other sounds in the hut, and you savoured the quiet peace of it after the noise of the inn and the rush of Kravik’s emotions. “It was just a stupid thing I started calling you before I knew your name…”

“I know,” he said, sliding his arms around your waist and hugging you. “But you thought of me as an individual worth naming, not just ‘a dullahan’. You cared enough to call me something in your own mind. It’s nice, that’s all. I… I feel more…” he shrugged and your head bobbed slightly with the movement. “I feel more human, I suppose. Less… less anonymous.”

You laced your fingers through his and brought them up briefly to your lips to kiss them before lowering them once again into your lap. They came to rest on your thigh, but he soon let go of you and began to hoist your dress slowly up your leg until he had bare skin beneath his palm. You groaned and leaned harder into him, feeling him wakening beneath you, even as heat pooled between your legs. You rolled your hips just to confirm it, and he groaned sensuously in your ear. His ghostly lips brushed the shell of your ear and his breath made your skin tingle as he kissed down your neck. He was slow, taking his time, biting and sucking bruises, then kissing the brief sting away with his soft, cold lips. His hand searched beneath your dress, and he moaned when he felt how wet you were for him. 

“Already?” he gasped, and you nodded, tilting your hips up to meet the touch and guide him right to where you wanted him. He made slow, torturous, loving circles around your aching clit, sliding his fingertips carefully up your inner lips, mindful always of the sharpness of his claws. When he did catch you accidentally and you hissed, he growled and cursed. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m going to have to do something about that now, aren’t I?”

“What, about your talons or about the fact that I need kissing better?” you asked playfully. It honestly didn’t hurt much at all. 

With a playful, laughing snarl, he put his hands around your waist and lifted you off him. He set you down again and began to kiss you, backing you towards your bedroom with a low, rumbling growl constantly emanating from his chest like a rakshasa’s purr. 

“I love that sound,” you gasped between kisses, your palms flat on his chest, feeling the vibrations of it. 

“Good,” he hissed, “Because I can’t help it.” 

He was more assertive than he’d yet been as he steered you into your bedroom and pushed you roughly onto your bed. He stripped you both - mercifully not ripping your clothes apart this time - and parted your legs with a gruff gesture that had your head lolling with the pleasure of it. He didn’t waste any time in setting his kissing lips and teasing tongue to you, sucking hard on your clit and circling it with the tip of his dark tongue until you began to shake all over. 

When you made to grab his ghostly head, he deliberately evaded you, turning intangible, and you complained and whined at him while he laughed and continued to send tingling chills over your body with the ghostly touch of his tongue and the sting of his sharp claws against your thighs. 

“D, please!” you begged, bucking your hips upwards in desperation. 

His tongue caught that little place just below your clit that you loved, and with the heat of his mouth around you, you came hard, stomach clenching, sparks dancing in your vision, and wailing in wordless pleasure. 

He kept his tongue pressed tight against you, drinking the taste of you down as you came, suckling gently at you until you jerked sharply and begged him to stop.

“Can I come inside you?” he asked as he pulled back. 

“I should have asked this before, but I’m assuming we’re good on the whole ‘pregnancy’ front… right?” you asked, voice slurred and mind still spinning. 

“My kind are sterile,” he said, his voice neutral. “And we carry no diseases.”

“Oh good. Then yes, you can…” you smiled, and he didn’t waste any time sheathing himself to the hilt inside you in one rapid stroke that had his spine bowing forwards and his fingers snagging on the sheets as he balled them into fists. 

“Oh gods,” he whimpered in a broken voice. “You’re so tight.”

“I want you, D…” you whispered, and he began to move. 

He started off with a slow rhythm, savouring the feel of your heat as you still occasionally twitched in the aftermath of your release or when the tip of his cock hit that spot inside you, but he soon started to lose himself in the sensations of your body. He grabbed your hips, plunging even deeper inside you, and you let out an earthy groan of pleasure. 

“Gods,” he cursed, “You’re so perfect.” 

For a while, he seemed perfectly content to rock his hips, moving in and out of you at a punishingly patient pace, but eventually his breathing began to shift and grow more ragged, and his snarling growls grew louder and more frequent. D pushed himself upright on his knees and raised one of your legs up, holding your ankle in place at his collarbone, his fingers gripping the joint while his right hand held your other leg down against the mattress. The new angle caught you deep, and he started that rhythmic growling in earnest, baring his sharp canines in a ghostly snarl of pleasure. The spidery veins of phosphorescence that spread all over his body like living marble pulsed and flared more brightly the closer he got, and as he pistoned in and out of you, breathing ragged, his growls filling the room and making your ears ring, you knew he was close. 

Without warning, his hips stuttered and he pushed himself as deep inside you as he could get, spilling into you and filling you so completely you almost felt like crying. He was giving himself to you all over again, and you gazed up at him in his moment of pleasure, savouring the monstrous snarl, the inhuman colouring of his skin, the ghostly green of his head, and the beautiful way in which his muscles bunched and spasmed as he released into you. 

Lowering your leg, he slumped forwards over you and laid his head beside yours, kissing your shoulder, before his head lost its opacity and you shivered as the chill of his ghostly form passed right through you. “Sorry,” he slurred, clearly trying to manifest it once again. When he couldn’t, you laughed and held him tightly to you, pulling him close. 

“It’s alright,” you giggled. “You’re a dullahan. Revel in being headless for a bit, will you?”

He laughed and gave up, half crushing you with his body, unable to muster the strength to roll off you. His skin was cool against your own. Eventually he withdrew and rolled over onto his back, but not before managing to make his head tangible enough to kiss you. 

You fell asleep that night beside him, and when you woke in the morning, he was still there, curled up on his side and facing you this time. 

You would have been lying if you’d said it wasn’t a bit of a surprise to wake up next to a naked, chilly, headless body, but once your brain had processed it, you smiled. In sleep, D had not bothered to maintain his ghostly head, and you reached tentatively out for his neck again and ran your fingertips around the ragged, long-healed scars. He jerked the moment your skin touched his, his head flickering back into existence like a kindling flame, and his eyes found yours wide with surprise. 

“Sorry,” you murmured. “I didn’t mean to wake you…”

“You startled me,” he smiled. “I’m sorry if I scared you…”

You shook your head. “You made me jump, that’s all.” You inhaled deeply and pushed him so that he rolled like a docile lion onto his back, and you could snuggle up against his chest. 

The two of you stayed like that until the sun was well up, and your stomach began rumbling.

“Do dullahan eat?” you asked as you cut a slice of bread and pulled some butter and jam out of the pantry. 

D, who was leaning against your small table with his arms casually crossed over his chest, shook his transparent, green head, the ghostly hair swinging down his back in the same way his actual hair did. You loved that long ponytail and the feel of his dark, silky hair. You cleared your throat before you could get too distracted, and grinned as he cocked an eyebrow curiously. The glint in his inhuman eyes told you he knew the nature of your mental tangent…

“Listen,” you said after you’d eaten. “I promised Kravik I’d say goodbye before we left. I want to leave my hut to Will. I know he’s been living at the infirmary while he’s been working there, but I think it’s important that he have somewhere to call his own, you know? Especially after everything he’s been through…” The mayor’s half-goblin son deserved some kindness in his life.

D nodded. “I’ll get Midnight ready, and load up your things into my saddlebags if you like. I’m sorry you aren’t able to take much with you.”

You shrugged. “I’ll wear my little back pack, and that fits most of my essential things in. I’ll get anything else I need as we go along.”

“I’m sorry…” D choked, and you rolled your eyes at him. 

“For heaven’s sake,” you grumbled, getting up from your seat and smacking him playfully with the back of your hand on the shoulder as you cleared your breakfast things away. “Stop apologising. I knew this would be a change… it’s fine! Stop fussing…”

He nodded meekly, and you quickly penned a letter for Kravik to give to Will, explaining about the plants in the herb garden at the back, and why you were leaving the little healer’s hut to him. That done, you slipped out into the ripening day, and made your way to the other end of town where Kravik lived. The goodbye was as painful as you’d expected, but he seemed braver about it in the morning light, and maybe even a little excited about starting over somewhere new. 

“I have something for you,” he said, tugging you inside his familiar home. He scuttled to a low table and grabbed something, retuning to you with a bashful expression that you weren’t used to seeing on your confident friend’s face. He held out a silver pendant with an engraved handprint on it. The handprint was noticeably not human, with longer fingers and a smaller palm. It was the handprint of a goblin. “I made it last night,” he said shyly. “So you have a piece of me to take with you.”

Tears fogged your vision and you swept him up and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his strong little arms around your neck, dangling from you in an undignified manner that would have made any other goblin deeply uncomfortable. That he was not was an indicator of just how much he cared for you. 

“Don’t forget about me,” he whispered in your ear, and you felt your heart crack. 

Giving him one final squeeze, you promised him that you’d write when you could, and that you would never, ever forget him. “You mean so much to me, Krav,” you choked. “I’m going to miss you so much, but I promise I’ll come and visit.” 

He hitched a lopsided little smile and sniffed. “When do you leave?” he asked. 

“Now…” you said, and, on glancing out of the window, you saw D sitting astride Midnight, waiting for you. 

“Is he out there?” Kravik asked, and you nodded. “Put me down.”

The little goblin strode to his door and flung it open. “Show yourself, dullahan,” he barked, and, to your surprise, D obeyed. Kravik glared up at him, jabbing his long finger up at him. Midnight shuffled nervously, drawing her head back as if she expected Kravik to chuck something at her. “If you hurt her…” Kravik growled. “If any harm comes to her because of you, I will personally set fire to your horse, skin you alive, and use your head as a football in the Beltane celebrations, do you understand me?”

To your surprise, D swung down from Midnight’s back and sank down onto one knee in front of Kravik in one smooth motion, bowing his head - his physical head, as it happened. “I swear,” the dullahan rasped rasped, “That I will do everything in my power to protect your friend and keep her from harm. I would not allow you to harm my horse, but you may do anything else to me you see fit should I fail.”

Kravik looked almost as stunned as you felt, and he turned awkwardly from D to look up at you. “Well,” he croaked. “That’s… reassuring? I guess?” he laughed. And then he clapped the still-kneeling D on his shoulder hard enough to upset his balance a little, and said, “See to it that she’s happy. That’s all I ask. And that you bring her to visit her old friend once in a while…”

“Whenever she likes,” D said, pushing himself to his feet again. “But know that if I’d had my way, she wouldn’t be leaving at all.”

“She’s a stubborn little thing,” Kravik said, shaking his head as he looked you up and down. 

“That she is,” D said with feeling. 

You looked from one to the other of them and set your hands comically on your hips. “Well, I’m glad the two of you can agree on that, at least.”

You gave Kravik one last hug, and got D to put his necklace around your neck where it glinted in the sunlight. 

“Take care,” the goblin offered as he watched D swing up into the saddle and pull you up behind him. As he did so, he let a glamour settle in place over him so that his skin warmed to a tan brown, instead of its usual slate grey, and the pulsing green lines faded almost to nothing so that unless someone looked really hard, he looked like an ordinary human. You knew, however, that underneath he was anything but ordinary.

“We will,” you promised. “And you too.”

As you closed your arms around D’s waist and he nudged Midnight into a trot and then an easy, comfortable canter, you hugged him tightly and tried not to look back. 

Your new life lay ahead of you, and you had no idea what it would bring. One thing was certain, though: if you ever met Tenacity again - which you were almost certain you would - you were going to give her the sharp side of your tongue for letting you think that D had not survived his injuries. You found yourself chuckling at the thought, and D glanced back over his shoulder at you and shot you a questioning look. 

“I’m just thinking that when we see Ten next, I’m going to give her as much of a talking to as Kravik just gave you.”

D’s warm laugh rippled out of him and you hugged him tighter for a moment. “Oh boy… she’s in trouble…” he chuckled. A moment later he added, “I love you.”

“Will you defend me against her?” you asked, aiming for lighthearted silliness until the sincerity of his response hit you in the chest like a club swung by a minotaur. 

“And everything else,” he said. “Always.”

You had no words for that, and clung to him as he gave Midnight her head and let the night-dark mare gallop along the sandy track, following the same calling that drove him on from place to place to right wrongs and deal out the justice after which he had been renamed. 

And you would remain right there beside him through all of it.

I would love to hear what you thought of it, and now that we're at the end of this 46,688 word story, I'd like to thank you for getting involved with the voting, and for choosing D in the first place! I did this story as a 'thank you' to my 3000 followers on Tumblr, but it wouldn't have been the story it is without you and your support. So yeah. Thank you. *blushes and wibbles and sees self out*